


One Traveller, Long I Stood

by Jemsquash



Series: The Remaking of Things [3]
Category: Naruto
Genre: F/F, F/M, M/M, Neji gets is attitude from his mom, Rin has personality I hope, So much worldbuilding, Worldbuilding, canon ages thrown out, canon team thrown out, what do summon animals get out of the arrangement anyway
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-18
Updated: 2017-11-29
Packaged: 2018-12-03 17:54:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 19,303
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11537412
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jemsquash/pseuds/Jemsquash
Summary: Chapter 1: Kakashi gets a team, slowly grows fond of them and has them ripped away from him all too quickly. Just as he perfects his unhealthy coping mechanises one of his teammates returns from presumed death. Most people would be happy about it. But Kakashi's guilt complex runs almost as deep as Obito's obliviousness.Chapter 2 & 3: Obito is just another kid in a large clan. There's nothing remarkable about him at all, right?Featuring: well-meaning Hokage bodyguards who are doing their best, irritable Yamanaka diplomats who did not sign up for all this emotion crap, loyal dog summons who will defend their boss from everything including his own heart, babyItachi who gets the fussing he needs and Minato, who meant well. And also old farmers who put up with far too much ninja nonsense, Neji’s mom who gave him his rebellious streak but not the fatalistic attitude, Gai who is a good friend and son, Mikoto who misses her friend dammit and Rin, who always knew Obito best.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> First in a set of requested drabbles and one-shots.  
> I hope I handled the gender terms alright, if anyone feels I could have done better, let me know how!
> 
> Next will be a set of other characters points of view, send in your requests.  
> Art work by the amazing PurplePuppet on tumblr
> 
> Sorry for how long the next part is taking, I had an unexpected but amazing week in America for work. But I'm back to the scribbling now! Got chapter 1 plotted, it basically boils down to 'Obito NO!'
> 
> (I have a beta now, thank Yulia Leafhill for most of this fic being mostly in the same tenses!)

Kakashi realised Obito’s biology was female about a week into the formation of Team 7, right in the middle of a spar. It took the scent of Obito’s sweat on the hot day and the movement of hips as a kick was aimed at Kakashi’s stomach, to finally overwhelm his preconceived notion that there was no way the loud, boastful, messy creature could be a girl.

The realisation slowed Kakashi’s reaction time enough for Obito to finally land a solid hit, sending him back a few steps.

Kakashi shook off the pain, Minato-sensei’s concern, the irritation of Obito crowing loudly at Rin about how he had beaten that stone faced jerk, and charged forward to continue the spar. Who cared what Obito was or wasn’t. This team were just a necessary evil until Kakashi got enough missions to qualify for Jounin. Then he and Minato-sensei would be free of the dead weights.

 

A year later Kakashi sat alone by the campfire and tried to pick out other females from the squad of Uchiha on the other side. But their scents were too similar, all smoke and blood and the same soap, shampoo and insect repellent mixing together, so that he can barely pick any Uchiha apart from another. Maybe it was just Obito who defined himself differently to his assigned gender.

Rin was in the medic tents, soaking up knowledge like a sponge. Minato-sensei was already gone on a mission he refused to bring Kakashi with. Kakashi was a pack of one, watching the Uchiha swap weapons, whetstones and wire, as if they were born to make war.

“ Hey Bakashi,” Obito dropped down next to him, “Gimme your chocolate rations for Shisui and I’ll get your cigarette rations turned into smoke bombs.” Obito smelt much the same as any other Uchiha, if a touch more dirty, had dried tears on his shoulder and Rin’s medic cream on his hands.

Kakashi reached to his closely guarded ration tin and pulled out one of the few bars of chocolate. He slowly held it up and Obito smiled at him, wide and grateful, because Obito never learnt. Kakashi flicked the chocolate out of it’s silver wrapping and into his briefly uncovered mouth in a blink, before Obito could stop him.

The shriek of rage Obito gave as he threw himself at Kakashi was worth the taste of slightly stale chocolate and Obito biting his fingers to get at his other three bars.

When Obito was pried out of Kakashi’s headlock and dragged to the Uchiha side of the fire to sulk, Kakashi’s scent went with his teammate.

 

The next day Kakashi killed eight grown shinobi in half an hour and Obito guarded his back for most of it, a solid defence allowing him to focus on going where they were needed to defend the camp. After the battle, Rin washed first Obito’s hair and then Kakashi’s, clean of blood and mud. For a week afterwards Kakashi carried his team’s scent in his hair.

 

Two years into the formation of Team 7, Rin’s new bra affected her balance so badly she had to go back to basic training for weeks. A month later Obito’s mesh shirt was replaced by a non-see through top with layered body armor in the chest and shoulders. His co-ordination had always been the worst of the three of them so extra training was nothing new to him. Kakashi’s growth spurt was later in the year and no one said anything when the team was again forced to put more time into training than missions.

Rin started to smell of blood every full moon and that has to be taken into account for stealth missions. Obito had one day when he had the smell of that same rich, promising blood, then missed two days of duty. He returned smelling of surgery around his abdomen. He never smelt of that same blood again.

A week after Kakashi’s voice started to break, Obito’s voice started to go down in pitch, though it often returned to his childhood tone when he was caught up in excitement.

It was so often on the tip of Kakashi’s tongue to say something about all of it, to taunt, to tease Obito. But then he was the one wearing a mask, he knew a little bit about resenting the body you’re stuck with.

 

Kakashi looked down at his sleeping teammates, envious of their ability to totally relax even high up in a small lookout tower. Rin and Obito had yet to outgrow cuddling together, even when other teams their age started carrying separate sleeping packs. Kakashi did not want to start carrying more gear than he had to, so he still shared with them the same large mat Minato always brought then declared he did not need.

Rin drooled in her sleep, right onto the back of Obito’s neck. Her legs sprayed out, hands neatly folded over the top of her blanket. Obito slept on his side, legs coming up into Kakashi’s side of the mat, as if asking Kakashi to kick him.

Kakashi had never smelt either of them without the other’s scent somewhere on them. He fought the urge to climb in between them, roll and squirm until their scents and Minato’s from the mat were all over him, so he could smell them all with every breath.

“Kakashi?” Minato called from his lookout post, perched on the railing overlooking endless forest. “Everything alright?”

“Yes,” he automatically replied, not looking away from the slow breathing of his teammates.

“ Worried about the Jounin exams?”

“No,” Kakashi had been ready for years, he just needed Minato’s permission to take them. Sometimes he was amazed he managed to wait so long. He never thought he’d be able to stand three years with two green Genin in his space half the time. Now he can’t imagine a mission without them.

“You’re ready to be a Jounin. You’ll pass easily.” Minato came up to put a hand onto his shoulder. “Just like these two will make Chuunin.”

The hospital wanted Rin in full time medic duty the second she got a Chuunin vest. Obito’s clan had requested repeatedly he join the squad his first cousin led, providing protection to supply runs. But both had expressed a wish to advance to Jounin, which wouldn’t happen if they got split up and slotted into such run of the mill positions. Minato was wanted in about four different positions within Konoha’s high command, and he couldn’t have a team trailing him any more. But if Kakashi made Jounin he could request his own permanent team, made up of a field medic and experienced rear guard. They would rank up experience points and qualify for field-promotions by the time the war was over. And Kakashi would get to keep his pack with him permanently.

“We were lucky, weren’t we? With Rin and Obito. They’ve come a long way in three years.” Minato looked down at them fondly. “They’re going to do great things with their lives.”

Kakashi let Minato tuck him in like he was six again on his first away mission, before he went back to look out duty. Kakashi let his feet tangle with Obito’s, the soft hum of Rin’s snores floating over him. Kakashi slept with their scent drifting over him.

 

They never sleep like that again, of course. On their first mission with their new ranks Rin was mad at Obito, Obito was mad at Kakashi for Rin being mad at him, and Kakashi was mad at Minato-sensei for forbidding his Chidori. They slept separately.

The next day Obito died.

 

Rin briefly had her own solo scent, without Obito’s. But Kakashi killed her before he could get used to it, and forever after his memories of her smell of blood, tainted chakra and grief.

 

The war had been over for two months but Kakashi was still numb, barely able to be in the same room as Minato. Gai tugged him down the market street and it was too much effort to resist.

There was a line to buy the previously contraband Iwa cosmetics and three Uchiha were at the front.

“Always said those Uchiha were a bunch of girls,” Someone said loudly and the Uchiha turn, revealing different figures and shapes under their Uchiha shirts to the ones they had presented on the battlefield.

“Yes?” Obito’s cousin said loudly, hands on her now emphasised hips, “What was that about being girls. Something wrong with being a girl?” she stared down the first speaker with a sneer identical to the one Obito had reserved for Kakashi when he snapped at Rin. Her voice was higher than the one Kakashi remembered hearing them yelling to Obito in.

“Actually Sakuya,” another Uchiha announced, gesturing to her tightly fitted shirt, and flicking back her curly hair, “We’re women now, right Kaoru?” She nudged her clan mate.

The last Uchiha, with more make-up than the other two put together to make up for a lack of chest or hips, nodded hesitantly, then cleared their throat, “Y-yes Mai, we are. Women. Yes.”

There was a stillness in the street as everyone processed this new information and the new names, with quiet muttering and head tilting. The three Uchiha stare down the crowd, daring them to say anything further then turn in unison to enter the shop with matching strides.

Gai’s eyes lit up with inspiration. “Isn’t it amazing Kakashi. Truly the Fire of Youth knows no bounds. Did you know?”

Kakashi was lost in his thoughts. Sakuya’s hair was straighter than Obito’s ever had been and she was taller than Obito ever got to grow. But the way her body had been poised, on the edge of action, ready to defend either of her family members. That was identical to how Obito had moved in battle, ready to shield his team with his own body. Her own body? Kakashi was too unsure and unhappy to even think too hard about the clan that wanted to blind him a short while ago.

Obito’s eye throbbed in Kakashi’s eye socket and he got a flash of cave wall and medics rushing around him, the odd juxtapose of visual memories mixed together. He summoned all the protective numbness he could manage. It didn’t matter. Nothing really mattered any more.

  


Kakashi was told of Obito’s return in the form of a dire warning not to go anywhere near the Uchiha part of the village, ‘Hound are you listening to me? We can not afford to lose our only Sharingan in the ANBU. Do not give them a chance to reclaim it...’

Kakashi nodded obediently and turned up at the front gates of the Uchiha, about five minutes after going off duty. Anticipation and despair warred in his heart. He was going to see Obito. Obito was alive. Obito was going to see him. The utter trash that failed at everything he was supposed to do. Obito was alive.

Kakashi had been living the past four months mission to mission, so the day long vigil at the gates of the Uchiha compound was the longest he had sat still since he lost the last two members of his pack.

The guard said she was not coming out. She. She wasn’t coming out. (Except Obito would because Kakashi’s presence is a challenge Obito never managed to ignore.) So Obito had been a girl, or was a girl now. Kakashi had grown since the first week of team 7, he knew now gender was a lot more complicated than the two sides he had originally thought everyone fell into. It still doesn’t matter, Obito was Obito. And Obito was alive.

When Obito finally appeared, Kakashi’s heart sped up and his breath caught in his throat. He hadn’t truly believed it. He stared down at the ground as a single sandalled foot and bottom of a crutch appear in the dirt before him. Obito’s scent was still grass on fire, burning sage and lemongrass. There was none of Rin’s wet earth smell, nor of Minato’s intense mint and pine, but it was Obito’s scent. When she commanded Kakashi to look up at her, he found he couldn’t speak. Obito was scarred and washed out, a scant hand taller than before, thinner at the face and wider at the chest and hips. All her colour had gone and her scent was overwhelmed by the mulch of grief and acidity of rage. Kakashi steeled himself for her justifiable anger and revenge. Finally, he could start atoning for his mistakes by returning the Sharingan-

Obito refused to take back her eye.

A tiny, tiny part of Kakashi, one that had been silent a long time, growled. Typical Obito, not doing what was expected.

Instead of any sort of closer or atonement Kakashi was left confused and conflicted in the wake of Obito’s departure. Her grandfather told him to stay away, that his presence would hurt Obito. Kakashi can understand that. His presence hurts everyone.

It’s surprisingly difficult to stop talking to Obito at the monument. Kakashi still spent time with Rin and Minato, sometimes even Kushina; but he made himself stop after that. Obito was alive, he couldn’t be late any more, talking to her ghost.

Kakashi took missions on Uchiha watch duty, between harder missions. He didn’t put much faith in the rumour that the Uchiha had anything to do with the Kyuubi attack. If any Uchiha was going to try treason, Kakashi reckoned, they would have announced it for the entire village to hear before starting. Even the most subtle of them had a dramatic flair that that would not be denied. Plus there would have been more follow through after the attack. No Uchiha had ever displayed much in the way of patience.

No, this whole Uchiha surveillance must be a way for Konoha to protect their most important bloodline, since Kakashi had proven that the Sharingan could be transplanted. It was Kakashi’s duty to help guard them.

And if that meant he got to catch the occasional glimpse of Obito, slowly hobbling around the compound, usually with a relative in tow, then that’s an unplanned bonus. Really.

It’s that time that helped clear up the whole gender question. Obito seemed to be perfectly comfortable in dresses and skirts, and spent most of her time outside sitting and sewing. Logically, Kakashi felt, if Obito was male she could have sewn something more traditionally male to wear. Or at least covered up a bit more. As colour in her cheeks and clothes grew, so did her figure. Kakashi understood that it was probably her injuries needing constant reapplications of healing cream, but Obito seemed to expose the most amount of skin in her clan. Someone needed to give her a set of Uchiha high collar shirts, before she caught a cold. Fortunately the other guards don’t seem to notice and reserved their appreciative looks for other, less appealing, Uchiha.

Instead of talking to Obito at the monument, Kakashi circled the Uchiha walls twice a week, checking it for weaknesses. The same way he circled and checked up on a certain foster home twice a week. He was doing the best thing he could, keeping them safe by staying away. He filled out paperwork, willing everything he had to Obito, so she’d be taken care of after his death.

The ANBU uniform came with scent cancelling soap, he had been on the same squad for half a year and he still did not know what his fellow ANBU smelt like. Kakashi had been washing with the soap off duty too, and had almost gotten rid of his own scent. He became more and more ghostlike with each wash. Soon all he would smell of was Rin’s lifeblood. The soap can do nothing to remove that.

 

There are a multiple infiltration of Konoha. Kakashi outran his squad and had to use the Chidori twice on the enemies, on top of other high level jutsu. He ended up in the hospital again.

Obito turned up, probably to finally reclaim her eye. Except she seemed concerned about it’s chakra draining properties. Was that why she didn’t reclaim it right away? Maybe she needed more time to recover. But Kakashi needed the eye to protect her. He was conflicted.

But instead Obito talked about how to use a Sharingan, details he had to work out on his own. She tells him to take care of himself.

Obito has a split lip and bruised cheek, on top of her scared face. Obito had been attacked within the village. Kakashi was going to have to kill more people. As soon as he could sit up under his own power.

  


Kakashi woke up again from a night filled with nightmares and past mistakes. But there was a song in his head that he used to hear Obito sing sometimes, a defiant happy tune. He found himself muttering a line or two as he got up, in a better mood than he had been in months.

  
_“Come find me now, we’ll hide and_  
_We'll speak in our secret tongues_  
_So will you come back to my corner?_  
_Spent too long alone tonight_  
_Would you come fight in my corner?_ _  
_ A lit torch to the wood piled high”

  


Kakashi was on Hokage guard duty during the Anniversary. Hidden in the trees he scanned the crowd as the speeches are made. He does not think about the first War Anniversary, when Kushina insisted on attending among the crowd, even with her pregnancy so advanced, and Minato ending his speech to thunderous applause.

This crowd was listless, a sea of mourners dressed in black and white, bright hair and clan colours subdued in the sunlight. Except for one bright spot of colour among the Uchiha.

 

Obito got her hands on Whirlpool flowers somehow and they draw Kakashi’s eyes despite his best attempts to continue scanning the crowd. Obito was finally in an official Uchiha top, but her collar was bent and Kakashi wanted more than anything to go down and straighten it for her and brush back the bits of her hair that fell in her face. She had a replacement eye and Kakashi removed the cloth over his ANBU mask eye hole to see if it was glass or a genjutsu.

When he uncovered his Sharingan the odd sensation of being in two places at once envelope him. He was surrounded by people but calm and relaxed, like he never was in a crowd. This crowd is his and he is theirs and the feeling of belonging tooks his breath away as he covered his eye up again.

Kakashi had no idea what that was about but Obito was blushing and smiling and the speeches were wrapping up. He could focus on that bit of weirdness later.

Then Obito went up to the monument, in front of the entire village and Kakashi almost has a fit. People are going to recognise her, see her injuries, want to talk to her. This is not going to keep her safe. The rest of the day’s guard duty feels endless.

After his shift finally ends he raced over rooftops to check up on Obito. He spotted her arm in arm with her cousin Sakuya and other Uchiha of their age group, stumbling along the darkened streets back to their compound. They were all singing a familiar song.

 

_“Dead wood needs to ignite._

_There's no spark on a dampened floor_

_A snapped limb in an unlit pyre_

_Won't you come and break down this door?_

_I'm trapped in an abandoned building_ ”

The drunken group sang at different speeds and tones, some less coherent than others. But as they reach the chorus they truly begin to sing in unison, making their song much more understandable. They roared the words defiantly, echoing across the empty streets.

 

_“Come find me now,_ _where I hide and_

_We'll speak in our secret tongues_

_So will you come back to my corner?_

_Spent too long alone tonight_

_A lit torch to the woodpile”_  

The hair on Kakashi’s neck struggled against the weight of his mask, wanting to rise in fear. He focused on Obito, with her new real looking eye. There was something odd going on here, him dreaming of songs he doesn’t know, seeing thing out of Obito’s eye socket… but to figure it out he would have to talk to her. And he just can’t do that. He won’t.

Kakashi watched from the rooftops until the Uchiha stumble safely through the gates of their compound, then fled to Rin’s grave. He needed to think.

 

A day later Obito turned up at his door step, a quilt of memories and scents in her arms. Kakashi wanted more than anything to flee. But he had spent a year trying to stay away and he was tired. And Obito was there and alive. He would just talk to her, just a bit. No more than that.

 

Six months later he wakes up with his head between Obito’s bare breasts, the quilt tangled at his feet. His scent, the one he had almost forgotten, is all over Obito, just like hers is all over him. Kakashi tries to summon some feeling of guilt or regret. But all he really feels is happy.

 


	2. Nine people who were wrong about Obito Uchiha and the one that was always right (part 1)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Obito is just another kid in a large clan. There's nothing remarkable about him at all, right?
> 
> Featuring: well-meaning Hokage bodyguards who are doing their best, irritable Yamanaka diplomats who did not sign up for all this emotion crap, loyal dog summons who will defend their boss from everything including his own heart, babyItachi who gets the fussing he needs and Minato, who meant well.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> These are the side character drabbles I promised at the end of Bend. Call out if I haven't written your character request yet in case it's not in the next part either. The world building and headcanons took over but I hope the characters are still acceptable.
> 
> My only excuse for such a long silence is I'm working on three very different parts of this fic and it's hard to go from a chapter of Sorry to a random smut scene to a side character drabble. Sorry!

  1. **The former Hokage bodyguards thought keeping an eye on her would be easy.**



 

The last thing the Yondaime ordered his bodyguards to do was ‘Watch out for my kids.’ Before he disappeared to face the demon fox alone and not giving them time to demand to go with him.

Raidou utterly failed to carry out his Hokage’s last wishes that day, busy putting out house fires and assuming one of the other youngster shinobi would have the sense to knock out Kakashi and prevent him from watching his beloved teacher die fighting a demonic fox while he stood trapped by a barrier shield. Iwashi managed to drag Kakashi away from the cooling bodies before he had a public meltdown and Genma helped him fake his way through the psychologist evaluations a week later, allowing Kakashi to go onto Raidou’s ANBU team where he can watch the poor bastard.

None of them were allowed on permanent Naruto watch duty, due to the need for their services elsewhere. Still between the three of them managed to see the kid once a month or so and make sure he was cared for and safe enough. That’s all they can do for now.

Kakashi continued to be a functional trauma victim and Raidou attempted to gently wean him off the chidori, knowing from Minato’s rare slips of the tongue that it was tightly linked to both his teammate’s deaths.

“It’s not healthy,” Raidou muttered into his cup, as Iwashi rolled a seven and won the set. “He’s copied half a dozen jutsu this month but he always falls back onto that sparky thing. It’s like he just enjoys chakra exhaustion.” He took a long drain of his drink and looked at Genma. “Give me some good news.”

“Naruto discovered orange. He got into a tug of war with his foster mom over a dirty dishcloth. I bought a new set of them and snuck one into his crib.”

“Why not get him a real orange blanket?” Iwashi asked, still gathering up the potato chips he had won.

“I figured dishcloths gave me plausible deniability, but a baby blanket was crossing the line to ‘personal attachment’ and ‘sentimentality overcoming professionalism’,” Genma changed his voice to match the council worker in charge of Naruto’s protections, “Plus maybe the stingy old hag will buy Naruto something herself, this time.” He frowned and stole a handful of Iwashi’s chips to stuff in his mouth, preventing himself from going on another rant about the two women in charge of Naruto’s living situation.

Raidou bit back his sigh. Naruto was fine. He was safe and fed and looked after by the Third’s crotchety sister. He did not get nearly all the attention and love Raidou knew Minato and Kushina would have showered him with, but he was better off than some orphaned kids. That had to be enough for now.

“I found out why security around the Uchiha quarters got doubled…” Iwashi said, once he was done smacking Genma’s hands away from his chips. “It’s good news.”

“They’re allowing homeless villagers to stay in their lovely new homes?” Genma guessed. The Uchiha had a whole new compound built while he was still sleeping on various friend’s floors, waiting for his apartment building to be rebuilt. He was slightly bitter about it.

“They’re finally going to teach non-Uchiha the mountains of rare jutsu they’ve gathered over the years?” Raidou guessed. The loss of so many older ninja during the attack meant many of the rarer jutsu were lost to Konoha unless a certain clan started teaching what everyone knew they had copied and mastered with their eyes.

“Better,” Iwashi smiled. “Obito Uchiha was found on the outskirts of the walls two weeks ago. Alive.”

 

Minato had had numerous pictures of his loved ones scattered around his office and two hidden in a desk drawer. Two sets of Genin teams, decades apart in years but both with a bright blonde head of hair in them, one as a student, one as a teacher. Minato used to pull them out when the peace talks and negotiating got heated, and look at the young faces of his teammates and students. Very rarely he spoke of them to one of his bodyguards.

  
“He had such a spirit.” He said of Obito once, “He never gave up, even when he failed to master something, he always kept going, as if he knew giving up wasn’t an option. I learnt everything I needed to know about being the child of a shinobi clan from Obito.” And then Minato put the photo back in its drawer and went back to ripping away power from clan heads and reworking the village structure to allow more immigrants and civilian families into Konoha.

“How?” Genma demanded. “Team 7 would never have left him behind if there was any chance of his survival.”

“Her survival,” Iwashi corrected. “Apparently the Iwa were wise to Uchiha’s war traditions and wanted to check Obito wasn’t a viable source of their own Sharingan babies. And she would have been if a rock hadn’t crushed her whole left side.”

“So how did she get to Konoha, almost two years later?” Genma frowned deeply. “This sounds incredibility suspicious. The Yondaime's student turns up four months after his death. And he happens to be one of the Uchiha secret girl-shinobi. What’s the angle, where’s the catch?” His eyes widened in horror. “And where the fuck is Kakashi? He’ll lose it completely when this story starts to circulate.”

“Eerrr,” Raidou thought back to a week ago when Kakashi stumbled into HQ, back in trauma auto mode. “He probably already knows.”

“Shit,” Genma stood up. “I gotta go make plans, maybe get Gai in on this. The psych evaluations are early this year.”

“Wait! This is a happy story I swear!” Iwashi said, grabbing Genma’s coat before he could put it on. “It is Obito, a Yamanaka that knew her did the tests and everything. Iwa had some clan head aiming to take out that bastard Oonoki and had a bunch of illegal prisoners of war he was hoping to turn. But one of the prisoners developed some exploding bloodline limit and blew up half of Iwa. Obito escaped in the confusion and limped home. She’s missing half her left leg, most of her facial skin and didn’t know about the Kyuubi attack; but she’s still got her other Sharingan and the Uchiha aren’t demanding we march on Iwa, so she probably didn’t leave any babies or stuff behind.” Iwashi smiled uncertainly. “I thought you two would be happy. Another one of our Hokage’s kids, alive and safely back home. Honourably discharged from duty too.”

“If Iwashi sleeps with Komachi again she might let your team go last in the evaluations.” Genma offered to Raidou, ignoring Iwashi’s objections to being pimped out. “That buys you an extra month and a half to get Kakashi back to halfway sane.”

Raidou nodded. “And if you put your name down for Uchiha spy duty, you can evaluate exactly how Obito really is and how much attention she’ll need.” He shrugged. “Maybe we’re panicking for nothing. How much trouble can a retired clan girl with one leg be?”

  
*

  
A year and a half later, after the sixth kidnap attempt, the third very public scene and a second screaming match with Kakashi that month, the three of them regretted everything. Obito Uchiha was a force that would not be contained, no matter how her clan, friends and well-meaning ex-Hokage bodyguards tried.

“I’m going to get an Aburame to put a tracking bug on her, I swear to all three water gods,” Raidou muttered as Obito finally walked through the Uchiha gates, after a busy day of talking to every person she met. “She needs an ANBU squad watching her all the time, not Naruto.

“I don’t know.” Iwashi eyed Kakashi’s slouching form, “I think she might have her own live-in ANBU guard before too long.”

“Iwashi, did you see the same fight I did? I’d be surprised if they ever have a civil conversation again.” Raidou watched Kakashi watch Obito’s disappearing back as she walked deeper into the compound. Sheer confusion was clear on Kakashi’s masked face.

“No, no this could work. They have history, a good foundation.”

“Shared trauma, Iwashi. They have shared trauma. And a shared sharingan! I want to put Kakashi’s name down for captain next year, I can’t do that if he’s walking into walls and trying to decipher the complexity of a woman’s mind.”

“It’s not complex at all. She likes him but thinks he still thinks of her as his idiot teammate and meanwhile, he’s built up this perfect image of her while she was gone and he’s having trouble reconciling it with reality.” Iwashi snapped his fingers, “They just need to spend more time together, talk a bit more. I give it two months before one of them makes a move.”

Raidou gave Iwashi a raised eyebrow. “Have you been reading those women’s magazines on desk duty again?”

“Yes, they have wonderful tips for low maintenance torture techniques, so watch your tone.”

 

 

  1. **Inoko thought he was an irritating brat with no real dedication.**



 

Inoko Yamanaka had been forcibly retired from the Diplomatic Corps in disgrace three days ago. And she was still angry about it. She was taking the blame for a breakdown in diplomacy within Iron Country, something beyond her ability to stop. It was no great loss of face for the Yamanaka clan as a whole, but it pissed Inoko off to no end. Which was why when a random Uchiha brat tried to carry her workboxes home, Inoko told the brat to piss off.

Inoko did feel a little bad when the kid wilted, put down her box of paperwork (four decades of her life given to the Diplomatic Corps and that was all she had to show for it) and scuttled off. But Inoko didn’t lighten her glare.

Two weeks later Inoko staggered towards the ration office, bags of old work clothes in her arms. She didn’t need them taunting her and there was a war on. Surely someone could use the material. Someone other than her ungrateful family who kept trying to make her take shifts in the family nurseries. Inoko didn’t know which nursery was worse: the one with the loud dirty babies or the one with the scratchy dirty plants.

“Let me help you with that Ma’am,” a voice said as someone took the top bag from her arms, allowing Inoko to see over her burdens.

“That’s very kind of you young-“ Inoko stopped talking when she saw it was the same brat from last week. The kid, for his part, frowned when he recognized her face too.

“You!” they both yelled, then freeze unsure what to do next. Inoko could order the brat to let go of her bag and leave her alone. But then she’d have to carry everything herself.

The brat looked conflicted too. Probably knew he could not drop the bag now that he had offered to help her.

“Well,” Inoko finally said. “Take another bag too, while you’re at it.”

The Uchiha spluttered, but did take another bag from her and followed Inoko to the rationing office, where she got a pitiful amount of ration cards in exchange for four bags of clothing. “Here,” Inoko held out two cards, one for two portions of vegetables, the other for a packet of sweets or sugar. “I suppose this is what you’re after? Which one do you want?”

The boy looked affronted, then sighed and took the vegetable card. Inoko was surprised, she had expected him to take the sweets. What kind of kid picked veggies over sugar?

“Grandfather’s tomato bushes are failing, we need new plants. Potatoes and onions can grow if you plant them, right?” The kid slipped the card up a sleeve and fiddled with his oversized goggles, waiting for Inoko to dismiss him.

Inoko frowned at him. “Uchiha don't grow food, they raid.” Her family and their allies always hide the better produce of their gardens when forced to have the police around. The Uchiha are always too complimentary to the Yamanaka’s ability to grow, the Nara’s to forage and the Akimichi’s to turn dull rations into a feast. The three clans always end up having to offer up gifts of food out of forced politeness.

“There’s a war on,” The boy said simply, shrugging his shoulders. “We don’t qualify for shinobi rations.”

Inoko forced herself to nod and turn away. It’s not her business how a brat of a non-allied clan got their food. Surely the Uchiha could feed their own kin. Brat probably has the facts all mixed up.

Inoko took one step, before sighing and looking back at the kid, still fiddling with his hair and goggle-strap.

“Hey kid, any good at weeding?” she says in resignation. “I can pay you in proper seeding plants that will actually produce crops.”

The brat looked at her in surprise then smiled brightly, bounding up to her talking too fast to be understood. Inoko didn’t know Uchiha could smile that widely. Weeding the Yamanaka’s nursery beds would soon wear him out, then Inoko could send him off with a few fruit tree cuttings and vegetable seedlings.

(Obito weeded the entire east Yamanaka orchard, in three days. His grandmother Akena sent him back with most of the seedings, unwilling to take charity. Inoko had to use a lot of diplomatic skills to convince Akena that she was doing Inoko a favour taking the spindling things off her hands. By the time Obito made genin four years later, Akena had more control over Inoko’s housekeeping than Inoko ever did and Kamo’s kitchen garden was supplementing a third of the Uchiha clan’s food intake. Inoko busied herself organizing trade with the nearby villagers.)

(Akena died for want of heart medication just before Obito made Chuunin. Inoko didn’t learn she had died until Kamo sent her word and the last set of her shirts Akena had taken to let out. Inoko left her job of organizing the trade of rare herbs and plants in exchange for food Konoha lacked the space to grow and bullied her way onto the Interrogation department. Inoko was gonna get this stupid war ended or die trying.)

(She never quite forgave Obito for dying instead. Life became a little duller, a little more pointless after that.)

 

 

  1. **Pakkun thought she was unimportant.**



 

Pakkun didn’t need to open his eyes to know he didn’t like Kakashi’s new teammates. The way they squealed when Pakkun yawned, so high pitched and annoying. He competently understood all Kakashi’s complaints about them now.

“Look at his little ears, look at his nose!” One of them squealed.

“Look at his wiggly tail! I can’t believe you have such cute summons, Bakakashi,” the other one complained.

“Can I hold him? Please, can I hold him?” One of them, the brown one begged.

“You have to ask him, not me,” Kakashi told her pertly.

“Oh, please Doggy, can I pick you up?”

“No Rin. You don’t talk to summons like that,” the orange one said authority. “You have to be firm but respectful. Don’t call him Doggy, he’s a nindog. You gotta offer your chakra for them to feel then wait for a sign.”  
  
A grubby hand was pushed into Pakkun’s face. It smelt of soil, sweat, tulip bulbs, weapon oil, raw cotton and wool, porridge, three other summon animals and under all that, burning grass.

Pakkun put out a paw to push the offending hand away. The Burning-Grass clan was nothing but trouble.

“Oh, his paw is so soft and pink and perfect!” the voice gushed. “Who’s a cute puppy, who’s a good boy? Who’s a good boy.”

“It’s me,” said Pakkun smugly. “I am a good boy.” *

The shrieks of shock hurt his ears. But the huff of amusement from Kakashi was worth it. These teammates of his were harmless and fun to tease. He would let the cleaner one scratch his belly.

 

*

 

Pakkun sat and regarded Obito as she carefully threaded a needle through Kakashi’s bare cheek skin, right under the cursed eye she had gifted him years before. He didn’t like this situation at all. Her face so focused on her work, tongue caught between her teeth as she worked. Kakashi staring at her in blunt adoration, that even Pakkun could read on a human’s face.

Of course, Pakkun could also read his summoner’s scent of desire, fear and guilt; the desire growing stronger as Obito breathed her burnt grass scent onto his face. This, Pakkun knew, would all end in disaster. Obito was still an oblivious idiotic, Kakashi was still a stubborn fool and Pakkun was still the smartest creature in the room.

He nudged Obito’s ankle before Kakashi could do something stupid like kiss her, and wondered how he could ever have thought this kid was harmless. She held Kakashi’s heart in the palm of her hand and didn’t even know it.

 

*

 

“We need to do something,” whined Uhei, pawing at the ground by Pakkun’s pillow.

They were in their home dimension, enjoying the sun in contrast to Konoha’s current wet weather. Pakkun ignored Uhei, and focused on taking up as much room on the large pillow as he could.  Across the thicket, other dogs pretend not to be jealous of his comfy bed, well-kept fur and a full stomach. Pakkun and his pack might be looked down at for being strange, marked out for being at the beck and call of a human, but being a summon had perks.

Pakkun had been born a freak, extra vocal cords and excess chakra making him more trouble than his dam could handle. Being offered up as a summons to old Sakumo saved his life, made him into the leader of his own pack and provider of human world products. And it gave him Kakashi, though Pakkun tried not to think about how deep his connection was to his summoner.

When Sakumo had died, Pakkun judged his main summon for refusing food and fading away too, but now Pakkun could understand her. If Kakashi ever died, Pakkun wasn’t hanging around in either dimension much longer than him.

“What do you think we can do?” Pakkun finally responded to Uhei, before the younger dog could explode with impatience. “The girl’s nothing to us. Let one of her family’s summons fuss about her.” Pakkun had nothing but contempt for the mismatched animals that got caught in contracts by the Burnt Grass clan. They had no say on how and where they were summoned to work and got almost nothing back in payment. The cats had a formal agreement, but that was only because the Burnt Grass clan were cats in human form, as far as Pakkun could see. Vicious, contrary and always spitting balls at people, albeit fireballs instead of fur ones.

“But but but,” Uhei turned and pushed his nose into his new coat, tailored to fit him perfectly. Obito had even added pouches that could be open with teeth, and quick release catches if he needed to pretend he was a normal dog. “She’s pack!”

“She is not pack, she’s just an old littermate,” Pakkun argued. He didn’t buy into this mate becomes pack nonsense that humans had. You stuck together till the pups could open their eyes, that was it. And there was no way Obito’s pack would let her leave to join Kakashi’s one.

“I thought humans didn’t mate with their littermates?”

Pakkun lifted his head to give Uhei his fiercest glare. “You know what I mean,” Uhei whined in submission. “It’s fine to watch out for her while she and the boss are being friendly, but when that ended, so did our concern for her. Alright?”

“But he’s so unhappy and he was happy before with her.” Uhei lay his head on the ground and shuffled closer, dangerously close to touching Pakkun’s pillow. “Don’t you want Boss to have pups one day?”

The idea of lording over a second pack of summon dogs, maybe even a third or fourth pack warred with the idea of having to train them first. Plus the fact that he’d have to train the human pups too. Pakkun thought back to when he first met Kakashi’s team, the matter fact way Obito had known how to introduce herself to a summons. Obito probably wouldn’t mind if her pups got the occasional gentle nip as they learned not to pull important leader dogs’ ears.

He sighed and rolled over, giving Uhei permission to get onto the cushion too. Uhei rested his head on the small amount of room Pakkun gave him. “It’s not up to me what the Boss does. All we can do is be patient and wait. Maybe they’ll make up.”

 

*Credit to the wonderful background slytherin comics found here: https://emilyscartoons.tumblr.com/

(In which I ask myself the question: what do summon animals get out of a contract with humans? I decided different animals have different motives. The dogs offer up their runts and ‘undesirables’ to be summons. They lead dangerous, difficult lives but they gain access to the human world and all their fascinating inventions. Like satin pillows and doggy biscuits, which summon animals can choose to disperse among their own kind as they see fit. Pakkun will never let his birth pack forget they gave him away.)

 

 

  1. **Itachi thought he would be an awful babysitter.**



 

Itachi hide under the house stairs when the new babysitter arrived. If he hid then Mama couldn’t say good-bye, if Mama couldn’t say good-bye she couldn’t go. Then she would stay home away from the war. Itachi didn’t know exactly what war was, but he knew people came back from it all pale and scared, bodies twitchy and voices angry.

But Mama found him anyway because she was a very good shinobi, which was why she had to go and help with the war, even though Itachi was three and needed her home with him.

“Itachi come out and say hello to Obito!”

Itachi curled in a small ball and tried to hide his chakra like he had seen his uncles doing on guard duty. If he disappeared Mama would have to stay and look for him.

“Honey I’m going now, please come say goodbye to me. I’ll only be back tomorrow!”

She said that, but Itachi remembered when she had gone for three days. It had been a long time ago, but he remembered.

Mikoto poked her head into the darkness under the porch. “Sweetheart, are we going to have to do this every time I go to work?”

Yes, until Mama stopped going to work and leaving Itachi alone with people that weren’t her, that was exactly what was going to happen. He didn’t even know who this Obito person was. Only that Father had recommended him four sleeps ago before he went away to the war.

“It’s fine. Just go. It’s worse for kids the longer good-byes take.” An unfamiliar voice said.

Mama sighed, told Itachi she loved him and her head disappeared from Itachi’s view. He heard Mama walk a few steps, talk some more then go, away from his fledgling chakra senses. Itachi curled himself into a smaller ball. He would stay here until Mama came back no matter how much the babysitter begged and threatened him.

“Hey? You okay in there? I’m just gonna practice drills on the grass for a while okay?”

Itachi lifted his head, almost knocking it on the wood above him. The babysitter wasn’t supposed to leave him, they were supposed to fuss over him until Itachi was ready to come out, then reward him for finally obeying him. This Obito was doing things all wrong.

Cautiously Itachi uncurled himself and crawled towards the sunlight. He couldn’t sense anyone waiting by the stairs, but maybe Obito was hiding his chakra like Father could. Obito was a genin so he knew shinobi skills.

But no, Obito was some way away practicing punches and kicks, the same ones Itachi always saw his family do. Except Obito’s seemed a bit too jerky and wobbly. Maybe he was doing something different?

Itachi lay on his stomach, head poking out from under the porch stairs for ages. Obito didn’t just keep on doing practices over and over again like others did. He jumped up and down when he did something right and said bad words when he fell over. It was funny.  
  
When Obito sat down and started doing hand seals, Itachi had to come out and watch closer. He knew all twelve main hand signs but Obito was doing something different, maybe he would teach Itachi. Except when Itachi came up close he saw Obito was doing the main twelve, just with little mistakes. Must be a test for Itachi.

Itachi sat down in front of Obito and copied Obito, showing off how he knew the correct hand signs. Obito stopped for a bit to stare at Itachi, probably upset by how dirty he was from being under the porch, before carrying on his hand signs getting closer and closer to being right. Itachi laughed, this was a fun game. Eventually Itachi took Obito’s hands and tried to form his hands for him, while Obito let his hands go limp like a puppet. It was so much fun, Itachi controlling Obito’s fingers for him until finally Obito ran through all twelve correctly.

“Now the other ones!” Itachi cheered.

“Other ones?”

“The quickquick ones.” Itachi performed the shortcut snake/ox/tiger sign like he had seen his mother do at her dawn practice. “I wanna learn them all.”

“I think I better start making supper,” Obito said standing up. When Itachi started to argue he offered him a backride. Itachi accepted quickly, Father had burns on his back and Mama’s sword holster got in the way, so neither parent carried him anymore.

Obito let Itachi stay on his back the whole time he got their supper ready, saying it was weight practice. He didn’t mind when Itachi played with his hair or dropped dust onto the counters. Supper was great, Obito didn’t mind if Itachi used his hands to eat or when he didn’t eat his veggies first. In fact Obito let Itachi climb onto his lap and just fed him veggies like a baby. Mama said Itachi wasn’t a baby anymore. But maybe Obito didn’t know that.

There was an argument when Obito wanted Itachi to bath but he promised him sweets if he was a good boy so Itachi got in the warm water with only a little screaming. There were bubbles. And no weird smelly soap and Obito let Itachi splash and gave him a sweet every time he dunked his head into the water and got the soap off.

Afterwards Itachi didn’t want to go to bed, and Obito agreed with him that it was way too early for a big boy like Itachi to go to bed. They would just read for a bit on the bed. Itachi didn’t tell Obito that he could read all his books himself and let Obito read him story after story.

 

*

 

When Itachi woke up it was before dawn and Mama was having her supper. “Did you have fun?” Mama asked Itachi when he came in to look for Obito.

“No.” Itachi lied. “I missed you.”

“I don’t have to work at night for the rest of the week,” Mama said with a yawn. “By then Auntie Uruchi is back, do you want me to get her to watch you or Obito?”

“I want you to watch me.”                                                                                                             

“Sweetheart. Please.”

“…Obito read me stories. He says some of the names wrong.”

“So Auntie then.”

“No.” Itachi considered. Auntie gave him orders and told him what to do. Obito had asked him how to do things and what he felt like eating and reading. If Mama had to go out, then having Obito would do. “I like Obito. He’s funny.”

“I know. Poor kid.” Mama gave him some food and chopsticks, then focused on her own food. Itachi had to feed himself.

 

 

  1. **Minato thought he’d be a perfect fit.**



 

Minato considered the playground with a frown. Kakashi was off with the team he had been assigned for guard duty, so he had some time before Kakashi came hunting for Minato in a huff over some fact the Jounin leader said which was wrong or what one teammate did that Kakashi could do better. Or worse, Kakashi would be all quiet and withdrawn because one of them had said something that reminded Kakashi of his father.

Minato had made such progress with Kakashi, come so far with him as a person and as a shinobi. It was a shock to see how badly Kakashi dealt with teammates only a few years older than him. Minato could leave him with a team of seasoned Jounin for a week and Kakashi would be fine. Make him deal with newly made Chuunin and he couldn’t go an hour without a flare-up.

This was a problem. Minato had sworn to himself when he became the teacher of six-year-old Kakashi, he would make sure the kid had a normal development, a chance to make links with his agemates. Thus far he had mostly failed.

Which was why Minato was sitting on a bench watching the class of kids Kakashi would have been in if he had never been accelerated through the academy. If he got a team older than Kakashi they would resent him and try to leave Kakashi out things.

The nine-year-olds were the next group due to graduate and so young it hurt Minato to watch them play. Was Kakashi really their age? Where they ready for military service. Could he find two kids that could deal with Kakashi on a permanent basis?

Gai Maito, Kakashi’s one and only friend his own age, was working his way up a tower that usually could only be scaled using chakra. The boy was near the top, blood on his bandaged knuckles and his teeth clenched in a forced smile. A small group of boys yelled insults as Gai neared the top. Another group of children, mostly made up of clan children, watched in silence with stern expressions. Gai Maito and his father Dai were an anomaly the shinobi clans still had trouble getting their heads around. That was one of the things that bound Gai and Kakashi together, the uneasiness shinobi clans had around them. Minato was tempted to ask for Gai on his team, but he needed Kakashi to learn how to make more friends, not let him stick to his only one. And Gai deserved a teacher with a taijutsu focus, that would bring out the best in him.

Minato wanted a student from established clans, ones with connections to the village he and Kakashi could use to win approval from the Clan shinobi. Minato would never make Hokage without their support and teaching one of their youngsters was a good place to start. And maybe a civilian born for the other student, a way to repay all the support he had been given as the first shinobi in his family.

Just as Gai’s fingers brushed the top of the tower he looked down and visibly lost his nerve, freezing in place. The boys watching from below sensed his weakness and doubled their jeers and insults, some starting to chant ‘fall, fall, fall’

Minato frowned and scanned the playground for a teacher. This was cruel and against the Will of Fire mandate the Academy was supposed to teach.

“Come on guys, knock it off,” one girl had come across from the swing ropes to talk to the taunting boys. “Just leave him alone. What did Gai ever do to you?”

“This isn’t any of your business Nohara!” A Shiba clan boy sneered. “A civilian girl like you can’t understand what we’re doing. We’re helping Maito realize his limits. Like the teachers told us to.”

The Nohara girl folded her arms and glared at the boy that had spoken. “That’s not what the teacher meant! You’re just picking on Gai to be mean!”

The boy took a threatening step forward and the Nohara girl stepped back towards her own group of playmates. Gai was still frozen at the top of the tower. Minato was torn. He wanted to encourage the boy but didn’t want to disrupt the playground dynamics.

“YOU CAN DO IT GAI!” a yell echoed across the playground, over the sound of all else. “I BELIEVE IN YO-GAH!”

Heads turned to the group of clan children, who were all frozen in place, eyes wide and faces blank. Except for one Uchiha boy, who had a hand over the mouth of another Uchiha, this one wearing orange goggles. The boy silenced was squirming widely, to no avail. His family member kept him silent and glared at everyone.

“Yosh! The Power of Youth prevails!” Everyone turned to look up at the forgotten Gai, who had made it to the very top of the tower, noon sun dramatically beaming down on him.

“Thank you for your support!”

Some kids cheered, others groaned, most ignored him in favour of their own games. “How are you gonna get down, Deadlast?” one last heckler yelled before following the rest of his friends.

The Nohara girl grinned and held up her thumbs to Gai then to the Uchiha boy who had escaped his gag. “Nice timing Obito.”

“Yeah well,” Obito attempted to look casual. “I really hate bullies.” He put his goggles on to look up into the sky through the sunlight. “But how _is_ Gai going to get down?”

  
“I’ll get the teacher.” The girl sighed.

Minato smiled and stood up, his surveillance done. Once he had safely helped Gai down and gotten the two kid’s names from him, he had a gentle word with their class teacher about cruelty versus encouragement and put in a request for Rin Nohara and Obito Uchiha.

It was perfect, a civilian born girl and an Uchiha, already good friends. They would set the perfect example for Kakashi on how to be friends with people utterly different from himself.

 

*

 

Much later, while Rin sulked under a tree muttering about stupid boys and Kakashi held off Obito’s punches with one hand and a bored expression, Minato wondered what he had got himself into. There was no way this team would function. He would just have to put on a brave face and streamline them to promotions as fast as he could.

 


	3. Nine people who were wrong about Obito Uchiha and the one that was always right (part 2)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Featuring old farmers who put up with far too much ninja nonsense, Neji’s mom who gave him his rebellious streak but not the fatalistic attitude, Gai who is a good friend and son, Mikoto who misses her friend dammit and Rin, who always knew Obito best.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Basically, this was an excuse to worldbuild. And add more OC's in case I need them later

**6**.  **Itsuo thought she was a police spy.**

 

When the Uchiha walked into the meeting hall, Itsuo Miyazaki surreptitiously removed the blades around his walking stick and waited for a chance to hide them. Civilians didn’t have the right to carry bladed weapons, even harmless farmers whose family had grown crops since before Konoha sprung up around their fields.

And when the Uchiha merely sat down quietly in a corner, he didn’t relax his guard. Clan bred shinobi never came to veteran meetings, they didn’t need the comradery and advice of a citizen-run support group, they had those resources first hand in their own families. Especially shinobi from the big sprawling clans like the Uchiha.

The girl didn’t need a fan on her high collared shirt to mark her as one of old Madara’s stuck up brats. Her eyes were tell-tale signs, big dark eyes set wide and protected by a ridiculous amount of eyelashes. Her hair was the right shade of black too, though stuck between the usual straight hair most of her clan had and the curls a few Uchiha had that made his daughters cry from envy. More than her looks, it was the air around the girl, that she belonged here, that she had every right to be here, that told Itsuo she was Uchiha and made him grind his teeth.

Itsuo spent most of the meeting keeping an eye on the girl, not paying full attention as the guest speaker talked about the new seeds and plants available in the outer markets, and how to make your own antiseptic and burn creams with them. The speaker did seem to emphasis using legally imported items and what the extra taxes would be. Maybe he was nervous about a possible police person in the room. Itsuo resigned himself to having to corner the speaker later and ask how a harmless old farmer might go about growing a few of the more expensive plants on the sly. Just out of innocent interest.

There were fewer questions than usual after the lecture too, and the meeting minutes, dealing with the usual news of members absent or undergoing treatment, were also very curt and monotone, not straying from the professional tone.

“And are there any new members?” asked Kaiya automatically, smoothing out her president’s sash fussily. The chairman elections had been unusually dramatic that year and Kaiya was still touchy about her narrow victory.

The Uchiha girl raised her hand, slowly. A slightly shaky, heavily scarred hand. Itsuo hadn’t seen a hand and arm that badly and continuously scared since his service in the first shinobi war when Lady Mito lost all restraint defending her sole surviving child. Itsuo thought injuries like that were fixable now, with the innovations the village hospital had come up with in the last seventy years. Especially for clan born girls, they always got preferable treatment for disfigurement. Why hadn’t the Uchiha gotten this girl sorted out right away, when the injuries first happened?

“My name is Obito, and I am, uhm I guess I _was_ a Chuunin,” she said with false brightness. Her high collar and curling hair hide some of her face, but it was still apparent her nose had been broken and reset. She had bad scars on her chin and right cheek, running down her neck into her shirt collar. “I served during the third war.”

“Off the ranks for good, or hoping to return to service?” Kaiya asked softly, adding notes to her register.

“Well with my leg and all,” Obito waved down to her normal looking legs, ending in boots instead of the usual shinobi sandals. She wriggled her right leg and suddenly it was obvious it was a false one. “I guess I’ll always hope to be a shinobi again. But,” she shrugged and smiled again, and Itsuo would bet money half her front teeth were as false as her smile. “Maybe I better focus on other stuff for now.”

There had been one idiot on the Genin team Itsuo had been obliged to use during his last harvesting. He crushed his whole foot in the mill, had been screaming when his unconcerned teacher pulled him out and carried him towards the hospital. The kid returned to work the next day, foot fine and not a scar to show for it, and been indignant when Itsuo forced him to scrub clean the mill floor he had bloodied up. None of the shinobi acted like that kind of miraculous healing was out of the ordinary.

It was strange that a girl from one of the founding clans, a girl whose family could afford expensive dental surgery and a high-level prosthetic leg, had treatable skin injuries that had been left to scar badly. And why was she here, the first clan shinobi ever to enter the veteran’s meeting register?

*

After the meeting, most of the veterans went to the restaurant across that gave good veteran discounts, after the usual fruitless debate over going somewhere else instead. It was hard to find a place with cheap beer and food, wheelchair access for Hyousuke and Nozomi, and a warm enough smoking section for Itsuo himself.

The Uchiha girl seemed about to tag along, chatting quietly as they crossed the street, when she looked up at the sky, noting the twilight setting in. She caught Kaiya’s arm and offered an envelope with a bow. “I have to go home now. This is my membership form and fee.” The Uchiha girl bowed again to the group in general, and Itsuo noticed how the motion was done carefully as if to not upset any other unseen injuries, and walked away.

The group stayed later than usual at the restaurant arguing idly over what that had been about. Kaiya had counted out the money in the envelope at the table, concerned that it was of coins and small notes, like it had been saved up. But the Uchiha were rich, the way they owned an entire compound and buildings around Konoha. Why would one of them have to save to pay for a small fee like theirs? Why would an Uchiha want to be member of their civilian run support group?

Itsuo smoked his rolled cigarettes, reattached his blades to the bunch of charms around his walking stick handle and frowned, thinking of her scars. All the same deep ridges from her face and arms presumably to the missing leg. What could do that that to a person.

He mostly forgot about the Uchiha by the next week’s meeting. Too much to do on the farm, even with his family keeping him off the work rosters. Three of their fields had been tainted by the Kyuubi’s chakra two years ago and the Village Council still wouldn’t reimburse them for the loss of income. Itsuo had to sit and write out an appeal, and really dive into the history to stress their importance. Those fields had helped keep starvation at bay for three shinobi wars, were part of the gift old Hashirama gave Itsuo’s family for not running screaming when the Senju and Uchiha decided to settle down next door to them. Itsuo’s Ma had had to argue for two days straight to convince the crazy plant man not to give them more trees, but fields of vegetable shrubs and crops. Itsuo’s family needed compensation to survive without those fields. (Itsuo neglected to mention the ponds old Tobirama had made for them when the Nara turned up and took some of their grazing land, no one needed to know those rice fields hadn’t always been on their land.)

The Uchiha girl turned up again, though. This time she had a notebook and wrote down guidelines on how to apply for a discount on monthly dispensed medications and the steps to a new breathing technique for calming panic attacks.  She used the same kind of notebook all her family did when they were writing up fines and warnings to Itsuo’s kids when they got just a bit too loud walking home from the bar. But the pen she used was bright orange, like one from his youngest granddaughter’s school case.

This time the girl made it into the restaurant for a single glass of water, chatting amiably until an offensively young Uchiha Jounin turned up to escort her home. There was less talk of her that week.

The next week she wore an official Uchiha shirt and even the most paranoid members of the group admitted she probably wasn’t an Uchiha plant, sent to spy on them for any veteran tokens they may or may not be sharing or selling amongst themselves.

Obito became a regular attendant to the weekly talks, notebook out for every meeting and sewing bag in use when the subject was stressful for her.  This was how Itsuo worked out she had been a frontline fighter in the third war, had been imprisoned long term and often suffered nightmares about it. She suffered from chronic pain in her shoulder and hips, lost most of her team after the war and had one teammate left in the force that she constantly worried about. She didn’t share any stories about the Kyuubi attack, reinforcing the theory that the Uchiha had evacuated their own families first, before getting the rest of the civilian population out. She worked the front desk of the police station and was perfectly amiable to helping anyone with any police queries.

The Veteran meeting book soon took to having her shift times written down in it, so members knew what time you could find a friendly face to help with license forms, accident reports, proof of ownership papers and organising bail money. Obito even managed to keep Sachi out of lock up when she had an unexpected reaction to new medication and went streaking near the Hyuuga property.

So when Itsuo’s appeal for repayment of his Kyuubi damaged fields was turned down again, he forced himself to ask Obito for help filling out tax exemption forms. He wasn’t paying taxes for fields that were useless. That’s how he found out Obito hadn’t even been in the village during the Kyuubi attack and had no clue how much damage had been done to the very soil the beast had stepped on.

“Three fields gone with just two pawprints?” Obito remarked looking at his statement. “That’s terrifying.”

Itsuo grunted neutrally. Ma had told him of the first time the Kyuubi had come near Konoha and she had said rumour had it old Madara had been controlling it in some way. He didn’t really think the Uchiha were behind the recent attack, but he still felt they could have done more to stop it. How terrifying could the beast be when you knew one of your own had controlled it once?

“And it’s touch poisoned the fields permanently?” Obito frowned. “All of it, not just the top layers of soil?”

“Nothing grows, not even weeds or grass.”

“Did you ask the Yamanaka if they had the same problem? Or the Aburame? They moved onto affected land after the attack.”

Itsuo gave her a look. Farmers, even farmers who technically qualified as first war veterans, did not approach the bug freaks or the mind readers except on their terms. Especially farmers who used pesticides and had several plants the mind readers would like to grow themselves.

Obito paged aimlessly through a thick book of handwritten old laws, then looked at him quizzingly. “What if you asked for new land? The council might be more willing to give you an unused training field than actual money.”

“Any land not already in use isn’t fit for growing. We farmed every possible inch within the wall during the second war’s siege. Shinobi training fields are too saturated by chakra to be used, the forest of death is too wild and the areas against the barrier walls are too sheltered, not enough rain or nutrients in the soil. There aren’t any more fields for them to give.”  
  
The ignorance of the shinobi clans was staggering to Itsuo, even after so long.

Obito frowned. “I know the Yamanaka got a tail swipe onto their main greenhouse, but they rebuilt it in the same spot. And the Aburame are very sensitive to chakra normally, they had to have done something to live on the site the Kyuubi landed on. I’ll fill this tax exemption form and sent it in, but I’m gonna ask Granny Inoko and Grand Mitsubachi, if you don’t mind.”

 _Granny INOko?_ Itsuo thought it was the Nara and Akimichi that were close to the Yamanaka. When had they switched allegiances to the Uchiha? “Fine, but don’t go mentioning names or places. Don’t need no Yamanaka poking their heads where they’re not welcome.”

“Yes, Grandfather Itsuo.” Obito agreed placidly, dating his forms at the top and bottom.

Itsuo restrained an eye twitch. Uchiha calling him grandfather. The world had truly changed since his youth.

*

A month later, Itsuo reluctantly used one of his veteran tokens to request a D-rank mission. Usually he gave his tokens away to other vets who needed more help with errands and chores, or else used them to make the brats spread muck and carry heavy loads. Itsuo hated the Jounin supervisors who he knew spied on his fields and barns while the baby Genin trampled all over the place breaking things. But Obito insisted she knew what was going on and would pay him back if she was wrong. Even though the whole veteran group has realised Obito never had money and suspected her family took her pension off her.

Surprisingly an adult team of Genin turned up without a Jounin, greeted Itsuo respectfully and listened when he explained his wishes. The leader was from a farming family just outside of Konoha and Itsuo knew her great-uncle. The other girl was an Aburame and she warned Itsuo before she released her bugs over the first ruined field. Ami Aburame cursed when her bugs came back into her coat and she demanded to know which council lackey examined the fields three years ago but did nothing to fix it. Itsuo charitably decided to refrain from using the spray weed killer on the fields nearest to her people’s land and stick to punishing his grand kids with weed pulling duty for another year.

Slowly Ami walked through the field, pointing at random clumps of soil her bugs circled. Her teammates followed with thick gloves and sacks, using trowels to scoop up the selected soil. It would take several walk throughs before the field is clear of the Kyuubi’s infection but Itsuo was willing to let them try. Maybe he could get the village to buy the soil off him for filling in training fields.

*

Itsuo considered his field, pea plants sprouting from the random spots he had sewn to test the soil. They looked healthy enough, and not any weird colours. He’d wait till the peas grew in and test them on a few animals, then the next in-law that bothered him. Only then would he relax enough to plant crops he really needed grown.

But still he should show some gratefulness. “What do I owe you?”Itsuo gruffly asked Obito, who was busy playing some hand clapping game with his grandchildren. His sullen grandson had carried her unasked out onto the fields, unwilling to risk her prosthetic leg getting stuck in the mud. This from a boy so lazy he refused to take ownership of a field for himself.

“Owe me?” Obito looked up and lost the rhythm of the game. The girls giggled and made her stand in the centre of the clapping circle as punishment. “I didn’t do anything.”

Spare him from false modesty. “You mediated with the Yamanaka and Aburame. You made sure the right team got sent over. You made the Tower pay me back three years crop loss. How much do I owe you? For your time.”

“Oh, well actually…”

Here it came. Itsuo braced himself not to haggle. Shinobi didn’t like it and he did owe the girl a bit. He’d get it back by buying the other affected fields the next property over, slowly build up his land. Even if he couldn’t grow crops on them, he could maybe use them for breaking in horses or building storehouses, now that the grown wasn’t dangerous.

“I need a place to plant a few of those kratom bushes, the ones that help with joint pain? I heard about them at my first veteran meeting. I’ve got some growing in my room, but they need more sun. My clan will freak if they see me with them and no licence…”

Itsuo gave up. He would never understand Uchiha. Especially Obito.

(Hey, if two rival gangs settled down next door to you and said they’d allied and were gonna form a new cooperative of supernaturally powered families, what would you?) (Itsuo’s answer: get as much compensation as you can outta them.)

 

 

**7\. Mariko thought she’d just be another patient**

Hizashi waited silently as his wife finished her case work. Her hair was as neat as ever, held back in the beaded hair net he had bought her on their engagement. The silver wire and pearls emphasised the whiteness of her Byakugan, bright for her diluted bloodline. His wife was an unexpected joy in his life, as if fate had smiled on him and finally given him something he truly wanted.

“Instead of standing there like a besotted fool, you could bring me tea.” Mariko said, not looking up. Her mouth was pinched in a frown as she stared down at her notes.

“I would but I don’t want to risk us missing the play.” Hizashi said calmly.

Mariko’s frown deepened, and she looked up. “You got permission to go to the theatre? At night?”

“Technically we’re escorting great-aunt Hanabi, but she told me she has no problem with us sitting several rows behind her.” Hizashi smiled at her. “We might even manage to hold hands.”

Mariko snorted and capped her pen. “What? Holding hands in public, after only 8 years of marriage? You’ll scandalise the elders.”

“They’ll live, they survived everything else.” Hizashi stepped towards her desk, “There’s time for you to finish up- Uchiha?” he read the name on the file she had been working on. “You have a Uchiha as a client? Since when?”

“Since last week.” Mariko covered the file with others on her desk. “I asked to have her transferred to the clinic from the main hospital, they don’t have a clue what to do with her.”

“I thought their medic nins were the best in the land.” Hizashi teased, knowing her prejudices.

“Those idiots are far too carefree with their chakra healing on normal injuries, they’d do more harm than good on Obito’s already over saturated chakra system.” Mariko frowned as she locked away her files under her desk. “Even if they were prepared to help a non-active shinobi. They have no idea how to heal old injuries of this magnitude.”

“Obito is it?” Hizashi got Mariko’s coat and held it out to help her into it. “That’s very familiar for a new patient.”

“She insisted I use her first name.” Mariko slid into her coat and turned to face her husband, doing up her belt. “It’s an interesting case and she’s harmless enough. At least I know where to find her if her bills go unpaid.” She gave Hizashi a quick kiss, in the relative privacy of her hard-won office space. “Is there time to say goodbye to Neji? I haven’t been in the same room with him all day.”

“That doesn’t matter much to him, now that he can see you whenever he wants.” Hizashi pointed out as he followed Mariko out of her office.

“I still want to spend time with him. He was gone this morning to watch birds and I didn’t see him when I came in. He’s ridiculously busy for a 3-year-old.”

“He’s noticed the problem with mirrors. He was in the bathroom making faces last I checked.” Hizashi said with fondness. The sight of his usually serious son sticking out his tongue with his Byakugan activated, trying to work out why he couldn’t see through the mirror like everything else had been amusing. Hizashi needed to borrow someone’s camera and take a picture next time, to embarrass his son in a few years.

*

Hikari was grinning too widely at the communal breakfast table. Mariko looked at them wearily, sitting down with the last bowl of miso until the kitchen made a fresh batch. “No. Get your own.” She said clutching her bowl to her woollen coat.

Hikari, looking too awake after their late-night mission/excuse to go bar crawling, just wiggled their eyebrows knowingly.

“No.” Mariko took a big slurp of her soup, “I have an early appointment today, I can’t wait for more miso to be ready.”

Hikari tilted their head. “The chatty Uchiha?”

“Yes her.” Mariko said cautiously. Hikari hadn’t indicated what she thought of the lone Uchiha that had briefly been allowed to enter their home a few months ago. “It’s the only time she could manage an appointment this week, right before her work shift.”

Hikari’s grin widened even more. “She’s going to be feeling a right fool this morning. Don’t expect any effort out of that one today Mariko!”

“Why,” Mariko asked suspiciously. “What do you know?”

“I know many things. For your soup I may even tell you.”

Mariko sighed and reluctantly gave her cousin her breakfast. Once again she regretted giving up the chance at her own kitchen in exchange for a home office. She would go without food until lunch again.

*

Mariko stood in her small clinic’s examination room and used her Byakugan to spy on Obito and the Hakate, two floors down in a quiet street yard. She didn’t feel the slightest tug of regret. The girl was on a self-destructive roll and she wouldn’t put it past Obito to make things even worse with her old teammate. Uchiha were well known for their stubborn pride and inability to admit when they were wrong. Just as the Hyuuga were known for their haughty silences and snap judgements. It was just how things were.

And yet, Mariko watched as Obito put out her hand in the sign of reconciliation, watched her fling her arms around the Hatake and sob with remorse. Well. Mariko felt as lost as the Hatake looked, panicky patting Obito on the back.

Mariko frowned. That had been unexpected. All of it had been unexpected. Obito rescuing Hikari last night, drunk and without someone to watch her back, Mariko lecturing her like a kinsmen and how her threatening to stop seeing Obito had hurt Mariko’s own heart. She even used a gentle fist technique to end Obito hangover without demanding payment first.

Clearly, she had let herself grow too close to Obito. Mariko needed to take steps to distance herself, before something dreadful happened. Kumo was up to something with the peace talks and every dojutsu bearer was at risk. The elders were talking of sealing every child in the Branch house, even those not yet five. Her mad hope that her son, her serious talented Neji, would be spared seemed dimmer every day. His beautiful forehead would soon bear a mark of ownership and torture.

Mariko had had her seal activated five times, more than most branch Hyuuga in their whole lives, every time she had dug her feet in and refused to live the life the Main House expected of her. Once when she faked papers to get onto the medic-nin course without permission and again when she refused accept the offer to join Lady Tsunade’s medical squads. Twice she had activated it herself, trying to scan and chart it, trying to find a way to lessen the control it had over her. The final time the main house activated her seal it was a calculated move on her part, a way to see how the chakra moved in Lord Haruka’s body as he activated it and a way to trick them into thinking she did not want to marry Hizashi.

She had had a terrible time after she regained consciousness, back in the Branch house part of the house, her real family fussing over her bleeding nose and concussion. Hizashi had been wracked with guilt, convinced he had misunderstood her acceptance of his proposal and that she didn’t truly want to marry him. Her parents thought she was being stupid and stubborn again, causing herself unnecessary pain. There were only a few other branch members that understood her. That just because she was being ordered to do something she would have done anyway, didn’t mean she was going to obey them without resistance.

It was that same mad impulse, that ball of resentment and defiance, that made Mariko take Obito as a patient of her private clinic. She had been called into the hospital for Obito’s initial consultation to pay off a debt and had planned to foist the young woman onto one of the hospital drones that littered the main hospital, quoting Senju research gospel and never risking an original thought of their own. But Obito had surprised her, been as un-Uchiha as Mariko had always longed to be un-Hyuuga. And her injuries were fascinating, a mad mix of healing on top of healing, years of idiots with more chakra than medical knowledge pouring undirected healing into Obito’s system. It would take years to undo the damage of that, not to mention the real injuries she had from being crushed by rocks. Mariko had told herself it was professional interest and clan sympathy that made her save Obito from the hospital mediocracy, nothing more.

Abruptly Mariko realised she still had her Byuakugan on and was watching Obito walk off, holding onto the Hatake’s hand. She deactivated her bloodlimit and turned back to her desk, trying not to think about that situation.

A decent clanswoman would go to the Uchiha elders and tell them about the Hatake’s awkward infatuation and Obito’s dangerous night time expedition, let her family know she needed close watching. A decent Hyuuga clanswoman would tell her own clan’s elders, so they could plot how best use the situation for their own goals.

But a decent friend and a decent mother, reasoned Mariko, would hold her tongue for now and see how the situation played out. And if the Uchiha clan should experience some drama and scandal because of this, it might divert the Hyuuga clan long enough for Mariko to do something to save her son.

 

 

**8\. Gai thought he was lucky being the privileged child of a large shinobi clan**

While Kakashi was his Most Respected Rival, Gai did feel a bit uneasy when his father insisted on inviting Kakashi out with them for a meal. Dai Maito was the Best of Fathers and a Most Youthful Eating Companion, but he still refused to let Gai pay for anything, including dinner at a restaurant.

Gai knew he was still far from being his father’s equal, but they were now fellow genin. And he knew his father considered it his fatherly duty to provide for his son. Gai knew it was a matter of pride. But Gai also knew that he was a young promising Genin on a permanent team, with a Jounin leader from one of the founding clans who always got first pick of the missions on offer. While Dai was a lone Genin who had no say over what missions he was assigned.

Takao Uchiha had lead his team on four C- rank missions that week alone, and assigned the other two students individual E-rank missions within the village when he wanted to give one of his Genin private training. Gai’s wallet was bursting with Tower cheques. His father had been given 3 D-rank missions that week, and 2 of them he had to share with another Genin. Gai was pretty sure his father hadn’t eaten lunch that week, unwilling to leave the mission room and miss out on another assignment being offered. Unlike most adult Genin Dai did not have a second job or a permanent Genin assignment with regular pay.

Gai gritted his teeth as Dai pointed out the various places they could eat. Tonight he would pay for the meal or he would re-tile their roof tonight! With his bare hands! Without waking his Wonderful But Stubborn Father!

“Yosh!” He agreed with himself. Kakashi gave him a look. The look that said, ‘I wish to make youthful conversation with you, my dear rival, but am unable to think of a good start.’

Gai obliged his friend. “My teammates grow faster each day and almost kept up with Uchiha-sensei and myself today! Watri had to keep from jostling the fledglings in her jacket but Aio was on my heels until the last hill before the walls.”

“He should save his energy for that last part of the run, it’s the best place to be ambushed. Why did Watri have her summons out if they were slowing her down?”

“Not summons! My youthful teammate’s family raise carrier pigeons and aims to train nin-pigeons for Konoha to use on dangerous missions!”

“That is the stupidest thing I’ve heard today. And I listened to an argument over new flavours of dango for three hours.”

“Your teammates enjoy discussing food with you?”

“I didn’t take part, someone had to keep their mind on the mission.” Kakashi said offended. Gai read his tone as, ‘They tried to include me at first, but by the time I had thought of a good response they had moved on to another topic so I gave up.’

“Here we are!” Dai exclaimed stopping in front of one of the new food tents that has sprung up, run by newcomers from the South, fleeing from the war. Their food ideas were different but tasty, serving mostly red meat you were expected to cook yourself on portable stoves at the table. It appealed to the paranoia of Shinobi and was fast becoming a popular dish for everyone, since food rations had been cut for civilians again but hunting in the Forest of Death was still free. They won’t have to use their ration cards for this meal, only cash.

“Bar-Bee-Qu?” Kakashi read off the menu board.

“Never been here before?” Dai asked, leading them to an outside table. “Doesn’t your teacher treat his team to Youthful meals from time to time?”

“Only if it’s ramen,” Kakashi’s voice was expressionless, “Or dango.” Here a hint of irritation entered his voice as he sat down and examined the tray stove curiously.

“That’s not very healthy,” Dai said as a young waiter lit the stove and offered them a tray of meat cuttings to pick from. “A Healthy Body needs more than salt and sugar.”

“Minato-sensei tries to go to other places. But if Kushina isn’t there to insist on ramen Obito and Rin plead and whine for dango.” Kakashi’s mask hide his frown, but Gai still knew he was pouting. Kakashi hadn’t insulted Minato in over a year, a clear sign he worshiped the ground the man walked on. Having to share his teacher with new teammates must be a trying experience.

The table was silent as their chosen meat cooked on the tin camping stove at their table. Kakashi turned over his three pieces when they were only lightly cooked and Dai did the same with two of his pieces, even though Gai knew he preferred his meat well done. Which meant Dai was planning to give those pieces to Kakashi, then two other pieces to Gai and leave himself with one meagre cut of alligator steak. Gai tried to glare at his father but Dai seemed oblivious, picking side dishes off a tray a waitress was carrying around.

Gai watched with growing anger as Dai picked a plate of steamed eggplant, Kakashi’s favorite and stirfried cucumber, Gai’s first choice and nothing else. Rudely Gai stuck out his hand and grabbed a plate of potatoes, dropping it on the table with a loud clatter. His father wasn’t going to starve on his account!

There was awkward silence. So awkward Kakashi was forced to ask a question unprompted. “Does your teacher take your team out to eat?”

Gai smiled despite himself, His rival was Making an Effort, he would one day become the Most Sociable of Shinobi. Gai was so proud.

“Uchiha-sensei is saving to buy a house with his fiancée and does not have money to waste. But he enjoys cooking and often provides us with healthy and Youthful bento lunches!” Gai’s lunches got better and better, as his teacher now understood that when Gai said he liked his food spicy, he really meant really spicy. And Watri appreciated that she didn’t have to eat bird meat anymore, as it made her feel guilty towards her pigeons. Aio didn’t care as long as there was fruit. Aio hadn’t had fresh fruit since before the war started.

Gai had been uneasy when the team had been announced. He had seen Kakashi’s teacher watching their class and had hoped… But Takao Uchiha was a splendid teacher and once he had understood that Gai really couldn’t use chakra he had narrowed his eyes and Made A Plan. Minato Namikaze might be a most youthful seal master, but Gai had never truly grasped the benefits of Uchiha’s Sharingan until Takao-sensei announced he had copied a taijutsu style off a cousin who copied it from a Kiri-nin years ago and Gai would now learn it.

Takao-sensei was a bulky man better suited to straightforward punching his way through things. But taijutsu he couldn’t perform himself he could show Gai using genjutsu. And there were so many new taijutsu moves to learn. Every month Takao-sensei had new things copied from others to teach his team. Takao-sensei had no summons of his own but brought an aunt with a Hawk contract to talk with Watri about the process of working with her pigeons. When Aio had problems with his mother Takao-sensei sent his police brother to have a chat with Aio’s mother and made her understand that this was Aio’s career, not play time and she couldn’t expect him to babysit so much anymore.

Gai loved his father, he did. But the idea of having an entire clan to rely on, to turn to when your own strength wasn’t enough, was a tempting one. If he could change places with Obito, be able to use chakra and have such a wonderful family to learn from all the time, then Gai would be a million times better. Obito didn’t know how lucky he was.

Takao had a way of talking that Gai admired, not yelling or ordering, but making it clear that what he said was going to happen. Gai tried to use it now. “Our teams must go on a mission together. They will get on well.”

Kakashi looked at him, a look that said ‘While I welcome the chance to meet your teammates I am weary of too much social interaction in one day.”

“Takao-sensei doesn’t let anyone talk him into doing anything. No dango or ramen afterwards.”

Kakashi raised an eyebrow fractally, which meant ‘Maybe, but first I’ll distract your father while you pay for the meal.’

Dai got his own back by making buying them drinks on the way out. But in the end they all had enough to eat and Gai knew his father would have money for supper tomorrow no matter what.

*

In a wonderful twist of fate Takao turned out to be family to Obito. “Real family not just clansmen, our father’s were cousins. Both grandsons of the great Nishino of the Endless Barrage!” Takao boasted, catching Obito in a headlock. “Though you wouldn’t know it to look at this brat.” With a rough head ruffle, Takao let Obito escape from him and hide by his teammates. “No sharingan yet boy?”

“Not yet!” Obito yelled from behind his female teammate.

“Hummm,” Takao turned to look at the bemused Minato. “You need to stop coddling him. He’ll never get anywhere unless you push him. Obito’s always been a bit of a daydreamer.”

Rin, who Gai had always found to be a polite and respectful girl, glared at Takao putting an arm around Obito. Gai turned to Kakashi to discuss her disrespect but found him gone, hiding behind his own teacher. Watri was blushing and giggling at him and so was Aio. Gai had forgotten the mysterious allure his rival inspired in some.

This team up might not be such a good idea.

*

It ended in disaster. Rin ‘accidently’ made Aio’s legs numb when he tried again to cox Kakashi’s mask down, Kakashi shocked Watri’s favorite pigeon with his chakra and Takao, Gai hated to admit it, criticised Obito the entire time.

Obito didn’t hold his kunai right, he didn’t walk quietly enough, his breathing was wrong for his fireball jutsu. It just went on and on, Takao relentlessly correcting him, much brisker and harsher than he had ever done with his own team. Eventually Minato announced, with a frown on his face, that he and Obito would scout ahead and used shushin to disappear before Takao could comment.

Gai’s team looked at their teacher cautiously. “You were kind of dragging on to your cousin sensei.” Aio said from behind Gai’s back. “I thought you liked him.”

Takao looked surprised. “I do, he’s a good kid.” he sighed. “But all that stuff. He should know it by know. He’s an Uchiha.”

Gai didn’t understand. Takeo was always so patient with him. Understanding of his weaknesses but happy to train him to overcome them. He had never slapped a weapon out of Gai’s hand and told him to pick it up in that stern tone,  _the right way Obito. Now!_

“Obito is more than an Uchiha! He’s kind and hardworking and dedicated! He only started making mistakes because you made him nervous!” Rin told him. Her hands were fisted at her side.

Takeo laughed. “‘More than an Uchiha?’ There’s no such thing! An Uchiha is an Uchiha and right now Obito’s a pretty terrible one. He needs to realise that and fall into line, before someone meaner than me makes him.” He nodded to himself, thumbed the burn scars on his chin and gently corrected Aio’s staff hold.

Gai looked at Kakashi, who was frowning just as hard as Rin. His rival complained about Obito much more than he did of Rin, calling him an always-late time-wasting fool. But he also admitted occasionally, when he and Gai were completely alone, that Obito was good on missions, able to talk to clients and bystanders, get them to do what was required of them easily. Gai had assumed it was the fact that Obito was an Uchiha that made people do what he wanted.

The way Takeo spoke about Obito reminded Gai of how people in the street still sometimes spoke about his father, the way stranger’s eyes followed Kakashi’s white hair with narrowed judging eyes.

Maybe Obito didn’t have it as easy as he had thought.

 

(Takes Gai’s canon team and rips it up. Genma is older and thus a sane age to be Minato’s bodyguard and I have plans for Ebisu. Big plans. Please accept pigeon fanatic Watri and shy but tough Aio because Gai deserves teammates as different as himself.

Takeo is one of Kamo’s nephews and dies during the war, just after entering his students into the Chunin exams. Chouza took his place as team leader.)

 

 

**9\. Mikoto thought she wasn’t  important**

Kushina played with her hair, holding a handful and running the ends over her face. The sensation of her red hair across her whiskered cheeks usually helped calm her down. But neither that nor the quiet training field in the dawn light did anything to calm her jittery energy.

 _The worst thing about being a jinchuriki._ She thought,  _Wasn’t the snide remarks or the unstable chakra. It wasn’t even the constant risk of kidnap. It was knowing you could make a difference, such a difference on the battlefield and not being allowed to do it!_

Ever since the stupid war started Kushina had been stuck close to the village doing lame guard duty and diplomatic meet and greets. Konoha did not want to be the first village to send out their jinchuriki, even though Kushina swore she would keep a low profile and kill absolutely everyone that saw her. She had even offered to cut her hair short and hide her whisker marks, as she hadn’t done since she became a chunin.

But no, the war raged into its fourth year and Kushina was waiting on the arrival of one of the few people remaining in Konoha capable of giving her a decent spar.

Mikoto Uchiha appeared without fanfare, dressed in workout clothing and sword at her side. She nodded to Kushina in greeting, face in her usual set look of distaste.

“Sourface!” Kushina greeted her friend cheerfully. “You’re on time! Did Itachi not kick up a fuss this time?”

“Only a bit of complaining just as I left the house. He was fine by the time I closed the garden gate behind me.” Mikoto pulled out her sword and considered the polished steel, running a finger along the unsharpened back.

“That’s good. You’ll soon be able to take long-term missions with me again!” Kushina went to a set of stretches. “Boring diplomatic missions are better than nothing!”

“I don’t want to leave Itachi with Obito for too long. It’s not fair on either of them.” Mikoto slowly started on her own warm up. “I prefer someone older than Obito, someone less flighty.”

“Why, don’t you like him?” Kushina asked curiously, balancing easily on one hand, other hand holding her red hair out of her upside-down face. “He seemed a little dim when I met him, but nice enough.” She added.

Mikoto didn’t answer Kushina, going through her sword strikes again and again until Kushina thought her old bodyguard wouldn’t answer her. But as Kushina flipped herself back onto her feet, Mikoto sheathed her sword and turned to face her with a neutral face.

“I don’t dislike Obito personally, though I don’t understand why Fuguki or Itachi are so found of him…” Mikoto’s mouth twitched up in a smile, as it always did when she spoke of her hard-won husband, who she had pursued with a passion Kushina hadn’t thought Mikoto capable of. Kushina had always assumed Mikoto would do as the Kunoichi of old had done and reluctantly stay home for a few months to have a bastard child and return to duty the day after giving birth.

Kushina had been at a loss when Mikoto, her shadow on all missions outside of Konoha, her guardian and prison warden in equal measures, had announced she was in love with the grumpy deputy head of the Police Department. Kushina had thought it a joke, or Mikoto was being forced into it. But it turned out to be the opposite. Mikoto spent the next two years relentlessly courting Fuguki (who seemed just as startled as Kushina by this turn of events) and finally married him just as the first signs of war started to reach Konoha.

“It’s just that Obito has no idea how lucky he is.” Mikoto continued.

“I thought he was an orphan being raised on the outskirts of the clan by a civilian grandmother?” Kushina asked in confusion. “And had little hope of being more than a Genin.”

“Well yes but…” Mikoto pursed her lips. “You know when you really work hard at a technique. I mean really focus and train at it for weeks until you finally perfect it?” Kushina nodded. The common Konoha taijutsu had been a bitch to learn enough of to pass the academy exams. “And then, when you use it for the first time in front of someone and they give you a compliment, a real deserved compliment like ‘that was good’ or ‘you did well.’” Kushina continued to nod, “And then they ruin it by adding ‘for a girl.’ And you taste ash in your mouth.”

Kushina winced. She knew that feeling all too well. Sometimes it was ‘for an outsider’ or worse ‘for a jinchuriki’, always an unexpected pain for her to hear.

“Well,” Mikoto, looked around the training field before looking back at Kushina. “Obito may not be very good at anything but no one will ever say anything like that to him.” Mikoto readjusted her sword holster and started some bare hand fighting stances.

“Oh…oh!” Kushina blinked at she realised what Minkoto was hinting at. A few years back Kushina had demanded to know where all the other Uchiha girls had gone and why there were only boy Uchiha in the academy. Mikoto had eventually told her to shut her up. “What really? But Obito is so… boyish.” She thought about how the kid competed fruitlessly with Minato’s apprentice and how obvious Obito’s crush was on his other teammate, the would-be medic girl. “I would never have guessed.” She admitted.

“My clan has been doing this for a long time,” Mikoto told her with a hint of pride, “As soon as war seems likely, every female that can pass as a boy, everyone not in the public eye lives as a boy as long as they can manage. Obito’s been living as a boy since before he was 5.” Mikoto’s face turned wistful. “We used to do this permanently you know, before Konoha. Every Uchiha that had talent, that craved a life of action, was given the option of living as a male. It was normal to live and die as a man, even fall pregnant and give birth without being forced to give up their maleness.”

Kushina chewed on a strand of her hair nervously. Mikoto had had to petition to be removed  from duty three months into her pregnancy and reluctantly returned to Kushina’s guard detail with baby Itachi on her back. She was only allowed supposed to guard Kushina within the village, where threats were unlikely to be. But a group of Kumo-nin had suicidally entered the village in order to egg Kushina into killing them and allowing Kumo to justify using their Jinchuriki in the war. Unable to fight back Kushina had ended up holding a squirming, crying Itachi while his mother engaged in violent fighting with their attackers. That had been the end of Mikoto’s maternity leave, and the start of her endless quest to find suitable babysitters.

“So…” Kushina took the stand of hair out her mouth, “You’re jealous of a genin who is still struggling with the basics? It that what you’re saying?”

“I’ve never treated Obito any differently and I would never tell him…” Mikoto justified, “But yes, I suppose I am. If I hadn’t been married when the whispers of war started, if I hadn’t forced so much attention onto myself in marrying the clan heir, I could be a squad leader by now. Maybe even a general.” Mikoto sighed bitterly. “But I fell in love and insisted on marriage and now here I am, stuck in Konoha while Obito will be sent out on an away mission any day now. He’ll never be told he’s good… for a girl.”

“No one tells Obito he’s good at anything.” Kushina pointed out softly. “He ran off in tears when I insulted his fireball technique.” She came up and put a hesitant hand on Mikoto’s shoulder. “For what it’s worth, I’m glad you’re stuck her on guard detail for me, not half a Nation over kicking ass. And I’ll soon be sent out to the damiyo’s court again. Maybe you can come with now that Itachi’s less clingy and all.”

Mikoto nodded still looking depressed.

“And anyway, Obito will have to deal with all that sexist crap when he- she? They? – changes back. After the war. That’s how it works isn’t it?”

Mikoto stirred herself from her thoughts. “Each one can choose for themselves, some boys never change back. And some announce themselves girls though they never changed at all.”

Kushina frowned then gave a wide foxy grin. “That’s so cool!”

*

Mikoto blinked away tears as she came out of her memories and focused her gaze on Obito’s scarred sleeping face. Kushina’s death was still an open wound to her heart, even three months after her childbirth had ended in disaster and destruction. Mikoto’s unrelenting rage at being unable to lay claim to Kushina’s son had only been placated at the news of Obito’s surprise return.

Mikoto had never told Kushina, but Obito hadn’t been expected to survive the war. An untalented frontline fighter, under the tutelage of a civilian born teacher? Obito was always destined to be an objective lesson to Minato, to anyone who tried too hard go against the way thing were in the world. Those who were too optimistic, who wooed the village jinchuriki and openly aimed to be Hokage and change things, those shinobi needed to be brought back to heel. The pointless death of a clan child should have been the end of Minato’s ambitions, killing his hopes of gaining clan support through his students.

Except Minato had become a legend in the space of one battle, the Yellow Flash and killer of thousands in mere minutes. Except Obito had done the impossible and activated his Sharingan, then done the forbidden by giving it to his teammate. His teammate who proceeded to end the war with the destruction of a single bridge while his teacher slaughtered an army.

For all the Uchiha elders’ bluster, no one was going to blind the Yellow Flash’s student after the battle that named him. Just like no one objected when Minato proposed to Kushina and sealed his fate as future Hokage. Minato had seemed destined to change everything.

But here Mikoto sat, by the living Obito’s bedside while Kushina’s orphan son was kept from her.

 _Maybe_ , Mikoto thought, shifting Sasuke in her lap,  _Maybe Obito can be good for something after all._

Her eyes burned with suppressed power, but she held it back easily. She would need patience for her plan to work. Obito had always been a bit slow.

 

**And Rin who always knew Obito was a good person**

Rin hide behind a tree and peered round it at the bewildering playground. She did not see anyone she knew among the hoards of clan children running wild on the huge wooden jungle gym. Some of them had real knifes in their hands, or metal stars or solid looking stick swords, swinging them around as they scrambled over each other laughing and yelling.

She had known the Academy would be different to temple school, she had been warned that most of the children attending it were from shinobi clans and would be different. But not this loud and chaotic. The shinobi Rin had seen before had seemed so calm and capable.

Two small brown dogs ran to the tree she was hiding behind and after doing their business came up to Rin and sniffed her new sandals curiously.

“Hey!” A voice came from above her and Rin looked up to see an older girl hanging upside down from a branch. “What clan marks are those?” She asked curiously.

“Ummm.” Rin cleared her throat, she hadn’t spoken since her mother dropped her off. “What?”

The girl dropped out of the tree, easily twisting to land on all fours. The dogs abandoned Rin’s feet to circle the newcomer with happy yipes. She smiled down at them, showing fangs in her mouth and on her cheeks.

“I said. What clan are you from?” She pointed to Rin’s own cheeks. “They’re not Akimichi or Umich marks and I know you’re no Inuzuka like me.”

Rin rubbed her purple devotion tattoos in surprise. Half the children in her temple school had had them and everyone knew what they meant. She hadn’t expected a clan child not to know.

“They are marks of Mayari‘s favour. They’re a sign I was born within her temple’s ground.” Rin had gotten used to their new home on the outskirts of Konoha’s borders, surrounded by other River Country immigrants so similar to her family, that she had forgot not everyone was raised knowing the Goddess of Strength and Beauty.

“Eeewee,” The Inuzuka wrinkled her nose. “You’re a civilian.” She ran off back to the jungle gym, dogs on her heels.

“But…” Rin whispered to herself. “We’re all civilians?”

She hadn’t wanted to come to the shinobi academy, Rin had liked the small school her uncle ran out of an old temple dedicated to some forgotten moon goddess.  But an old shinobi had come to the classes and tested everyone, then said Rin had enough chakra to join the academy.

The Konoha Academy was free, gave its student’s two meals to compensate for the long school hours and provided funds for purchasing new clothes and equipment. On top of the money they would save it meant both Rin’s parents could work full time. She didn’t have to be a ninja, they had told her. She could choose to drop out in a few years and become an apprentice to a useful craft. It was just for now.

Which was how Rin found herself hiding behind a tree, in stiff new clothing and cold feet in second hand sandals.

Her quiet was interrupted again by a boy dragging another boy behind him, both dressed in dark blue clothing with a red symbol on their backs.

“It’s fine! I don’t care!”

“I care! Inabi needs to know he can’t pick on you just because we’re at school!” The older boy spun around and pushed the other to stand by Rin’s tree. He dragged his heel through the dirt, making a line. “There. You stay in that spot until I get back.”

“But!”

“No buts Obito!” The unnamed boy gave a stern look, then pulled a short stout stick out from under his high collared shirt. He turned back to the play ground, holding the stick menacingly, aiming for a crowd of similarly dressed boys on the far corner.

“You’re not supposed to bring police batons to school.” The left behind boy muttered to himself, then signed and bent down to look at the ants that had been disturbed by the line in the dirt.

Rin gathered her courage and stepped forward.

The boy didn’t notice her.

She took another breath and took another step forward.

The boy put his hand down to let an ant run over it.

One more step and Rin was right next to him. “Hello?”

“Gah!” The boy fell back onto his bottom and looked up at her. “Where did you come from?”

“That tree.” Rin pointed. “Do you need help?” she started to put her hand out to help him up.

“No!” The boy looked away, “I meant to sit down. It’s comfortable.”

Rin decided not to say anything about the ants now climbing up his arms. “Okay. Was that your brother?”

 “No. My cousin.” He carelessly explained. “He’s mad because I let Inabi take my snack box.”

Rin felt her body freeze. “But...the school is supposed to feed us! Every day! I don’t have any food.” Tears pricked in her eyes. It was all so different and her mom had promised her hot cooked meals from the school every day.

“It does! But my grandma always give me a snack cause I’m always late to lunch.”  The boy looked up at her worried face. “It’s alright! They have enough for everyone but the nice stuff is always gone by the time I get there! But look!” he pulled out a bag of rice balls from a pocket. “I took this out my snack box before I left home. Inabi only got my veggies. You can share with me if you want.”

Rin gave her first real smile of the day. “Okay!” This boy was harmless and Rin finally recognized his shirt symbol as the one belonging to the clan her uncle had warned her about. If this was as scary as the shinobi clans got, then Rin would be fine.

An adult shinobi finally appeared at the Academy doors, holding a bell and stick. Even as he started to ring the bell, students were dashing past him to their classrooms. “In you all get! Come on you hellions! New year, same rules! All weapons in your shoe baskets, not your pockets! I see that tanto Hatake! Put it away!”

Rin put out her hand again and this time the boy took it and let her help him up. “I’m Rin Nohara!”

“I’m Obito Uchiha.”

“It’s nice to meet you!” They chorused still holding hands as they ran towards the school building.

She would be alright. Rin thought as they ran passed the teacher arguing with a smaller boy refusing to hand over his short sword. As long as Obito stuck with her.

*

_Hail Mayari, she of the shield and horse._

_She that guides the medic and soldier, the child and mother,_

_She who gave the sea and sky their stars_

When all else failed, Rin recited the psalms of her temple, fighting off the genjutsu that compelled her to give up her mission’s details. She was surprised how well she could remember them, it had been so long since she attended a prayer service. There always seemed to be something else to do: studying, training, sleeping, packing. Mission on top of mission like the one she was on now-

She cut herself off and went back to her psalms. Nice try Iwa-nin.

_Hail she that guides my hand in everything,_

_she who teaches patience in everything,_

_she who promotes studies over love-_

Kakashi could quote the shinobi code all he wanted, she had her faith in something less heartless and ruthless. Even when her parents had disagreed with her choice to continue her shinobi studies, the priests had supported her. Balance is key, her uncle had told her, as long as you help more than you hurt, heal more than you injure. You will always carry Mayari’s favour.

She hoped they got away, her boys. Her silly rash boys. She hoped Kakashi didn’t hurt Obito too badly to make him keep up. And Obito didn’t hold a grudge for too long. She hoped they remembered how fast the explosions went off and they got off the-

_Hail Mayari, she of the shield and horse._

_She that guides the medic and soldier, the child and mother,_

_she who gave the sea and sky their stars_

Rin wasn’t worried about herself. Minato sensei had laid out the facts of their chances the first time they left Konoha on a mission. Either she would be mostly unharmed and used in a prisoner exchange, or she would die. And if they didn’t kill her right away, tried to draw it out and hurt her, she was prepared. A sudden burst of chakra to her brain stem and she was dead in minutes. Any rookie medic could do that, even with their chakra drained away and under a genjutsu-

Which had stopped, oddly.

Rin readied her chakra, and opened her eyes. “Kakashi? Obito!”

Obito smiled at her, eyes wide and red. “We came to rescue you!” Next to him Kakashi nodded, half his face bandaged up. “You’ll be alright now!”

She smiled, of course Obito would convince Kakashi to come back for her. He was that kind of person. Rin had figured that out the day she met him.

 


End file.
